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Welcome to Writing Prompt Pit Stop! It’s Day 24 of NaPoWriMo, it’s edging ever so close to the end of the month, and I’ve been 24 of 24 so far! I’m not thrilled with every single one of those 24, but I do feel that I do have some keepers, or at least ones that can be revised after April ends. Today, I followed the April PAD Challengeprompt, only because it appealed to me more at this moment, but as I said before I’m archiving prompts I haven’t used from the opposite site to keep writing on into the summer. The prompt was to write about something you gained back that you previously lost. This prompt alone could give me quite a few new poems, but today I settled on one. Following is my poem, “No Doubt,” the prompt used, and then the NaPoWriMo prompt. Enjoy!

No Doubt

At one time in my life,
Kindergarten to be exact,
I had no fear of an audience.
When asked to memorize
a poem to recite for our class
graduation, I had no doubt
about saying I would do it.
My mom, was not so sure.
I followed through and basked
in the attention and applause.

Sometime after that glory day,
in between five and thirty-five
I lost that want, or need to speak
in a crowd or to an audience –
in fact, I kept a lot held tight within,
I never dreamed of speaking up
for myself, or in front of others.

Then after divorces, mothering, and
creating art, I learned my way
back into higher education. Older,
more experienced, I found public
speaking wasn’t worse than death,
ignoring my shaking knees and nausea.
Soon after, poetry came back – my own,
and I thrilled to share with audiences,
to hear their applause: my calling – no doubt.

Day 24 April PAD Challenge prompt:

For today’s prompt, write a poem in which something is lost and then regained. Maybe a relationship is lost and then regained, or a special keepsake. Maybe it was stolen and won back. Or maybe it was in your possession the whole time, but you just didn’t know it.

Day 24 NaPoWriMo prompt:

Today I challenge you to write a “mix-and-match” poem in which you mingle fancy vocabulary with distinctly un-fancy words. First, spend five minutes writing a list of overly poetic words – words that you think just sound too high-flown to really be used by anyone in everyday speech. Examples might be vesper, heliotrope, or excelsior. Now spend five minutes writing words that you might use or hear every day, but which seem too boring or quotidian to be in a poem. Examples might be garbage disposal, doggy bag, bathroom. Now mix and match examples from both of your lists into a single poem. Hopefully you’ll end up with a poem that makes the everyday seem poetic, and which keeps your poetic language grounded.

If you get something that you’d like to share, please do in comments below!

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Beginning March 20th, 2016 Poetry Breakfast will once again serve a little poetic nourishment every morning. Start your day with our new expanded menu. Poems, of course, are our specialty. But we will also be serving a fuller menu that includes poetry related creative non-fiction such as letters to and from poets, essays on poetry, and anything else that might feed a poet and poetry lover’s soul.